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<title>User assistance support</title>
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<h1>User assistance support</h1>

<h3>What is user assistance?</h3>

<p>
User assistance is a set of components that together introduce the user
to the product, guide the user through tasks, and help the user find more
information about the product. There are four basic components:
</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="ua_intro.htm">Welcome</a></li>
<li><a href="ua_help.htm">Help</a></li>
<li><a href="ua_cheatsheet.htm">Cheat Sheets</a></li>
<li><a href="ua_statushandling.htm">Status Handling</a></li>
</ul>

<h3>Welcome</h3>

<p>
<a href="ua_intro.htm">Welcome</a> (also called Intro) support is a set of
extension points and workbench parts that allow plug-ins to define specialized
pages that introduce a platform product to new users. These extension points
can be used to create the &quot;Initial User Experience&quot; of the product in
the form of welcome pages. Welcome pages are intended to guide users into
discovering a product's functionality. They are typically shown the first time
a product is started.
</p>

<h3>Help</h3>

<p>
The <a href="ua_help.htm">help system</a> provides the raw building blocks to
structure and contribute documentation to the platform. It does not dictate
structure or granularity of documentation. You can choose the tools and
structure for your documentation that suits your needs.&nbsp; The help plug-in
allows you to describe your documentation structure to the platform using a
table of contents (toc) file.
</p>

<p>
Help also includes context help support, where a user can
summon help for a particular element in the UI (e.g. by pressing F1 on Windows).
In addition, help provides the ability to perform a single search that finds
information from any number of sources (federated information search).
</p>

<h3>Cheat Sheets</h3>

<p>
<a href="ua_cheatsheet.htm">Cheat sheets</a> guide users through tasks. The
task is broken down into steps and presented to the user one step at a time, and
the user checks off the steps as he/she completes them. Cheat sheets come in two
forms: simple (one task, several steps), and composite (many sub-tasks, each
having many steps). Which one you use depends on the size and complexity of the
task you want to guide the user through.
</p>

<h3>Status Handling</h3>

<p>
<a href="ua_statushandling.htm">Status handling</a> is a facility that 
allows to introduce a custom way of showing problems in the product to users. 
A part of the facility is an extension point which allows to plug new status handler
specific for the product. This handler associated to the product is intended
to present the problem in the useful for users way.
</p>

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